At the moment, we still have not had the gift exchange with my parents and brother. So it is possible that there may be more knitting-related gifts coming for me. However, so far, this has been the haul, thanks entirely to my incredibly generous MIL who might be single-handedly keeping the Yarn & Crafts shop in business:
This photograph displays the following items:
- a really cool basket
- a kit to make the fantastic Lotus Blossom Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting
- a kit to make, for DD, the Twizzle Cardigan from sweaterkits.com
- two Elsebeth Lavold books: The Sophisticated Lady Collection and The Mellow Tone Collection
- Fortissima Colori Socka Color yarn, enough to make two pairs of socks - one in the 'tropical' colourway, the other in the 'navy/blue' colourway
Be still my heart.
You may notice that there is a strand of yarn coming out of the basket and running down to the floor. It is leading to this...
- Self-patterning socks for moi
I have no shame.
- Persian Tiles shawl for Grandma
- This is the project I worked on over the weekend, and it's coming along really nicely:
To be completely honest, it's what I should be working on instead of my new socks, but, well...oh, come on, I've never had self-patterning sock yarn before. Cut me some slack.
My husband, however, is not buying this argument. "Don't you have a shawl to do?" he asked. "A shawl that you were panicking about because you didn't know how you'd have it ready for January 14th for your grandmother's birthday?" I stared at him menacingly. "All I'm saying," he continued unwisely, "is that every stitch you do on that sock means..."
I cut him off. I don't need a spouse who's not into enabling me. Humph.
- Christmas socks for DH
- These were a big success. He was super-happy as he pulled the socks out of the gift bag, and then...
"Heyyyyy!!!" he said, as it dawned on him that I had been deceiving him about the socks lo these many months.
I pointed and yelled, "Ha!" Triumphantly.
Today we went through a few more details of how I had deceived him without ever actually lying. For instance, when I said that I was going to work on socks one day and then made an offhand remark about how I really want to make some socks for myself. I told him it wasn't my fault if he chose to assume that this meant the socks I was going to knit would be for me. Then he accused me of deliberately trying to mislead him.
"Well, yeah," I replied. :)
Then he said I was good enough at this to be Aes Sedai (yes, we're both geeks) and I thanked him. I think he went away muttering. :)
He's definitely happy about the socks. About the fact that I still have never finished anything for myself...not so happy. Which is why he's letting me get away with starting up the self-patterning socks for myself without too much complaint about all my other knitting deadlines.
- Stornaway sweater for BIL
- He loves it.
He commented on how smooth it feels, how gorgeous it is, and how the hang tag just tops it right off. He's thinking of keeping it on for the 'bling' factor. :)
- Cape Cod sweater for MIL
- This was finished on the commute home on Friday afernoon. I also fixed the laddering problem on the left cuff:
It's not perfect, but it's scads better.
I recently discovered (and you may or may not be able to tell from the above photo) that the 'laddering' problems I'm having whenever I do in-the-round knitting with the Magic Loop technique or double-pointed needles are actually due to the fact that I pull too tightly in an effort to avoid laddering (oh, the irony). So I've started being more relaxed about how I start off the stitches on a new needle, and am noticing a big difference. Sadly, I didn't make this discovery in time to knit the Cape Cod sleeves perfectly, but the number of people who will notice are extremely few.
So...here are the shots of the completed sweater:
front
back
detail of sleeve
me modelling the sweater, seen from the front
me modelling the sweater, seen from the back
me modelling the sweater, seen from the side to show off the underarm gusset
Upshot: my MIL loves it. Really, really loves it. You know when someone says, "Oh, Kathleen!!!" several times that it's a hit.
Yay!
2 comments:
Those sweaters are gorgeous - I've been watching their progress with interest! As for socks for yourself, you go for it, I'm currently addicted to sock making though and can't seem to return to my more complex WIP's, I guess it's lack of self discipline and cold feet!
Oooo, I can see why the Lotus Shawl is going to be a distraction! I caved and bought the Peacock Feathers pattern at the CSNF last fall (the only thing that is keeping me from it is the Fiber Trends Peace Shawl, and the only thing that kept me from finishing that was the Christmas Crisis :P).
The sweaters are beautiful! I've only done Magic Loop once, but for the dpns, I rotate where the break is (knit two more stitches on each needle each round) - I do end up with a faint spiral pattern, but it's less noticable than a ladder. I just sort out where each needle should be for the heel when I get there!
Post a Comment